Cathy Kawano-Ching cooked my very first 100% local meal last year (which I shared in a journal) and this year she topped that with a 100% local chocolate cake. James and I were fortunate to meet with her earlier today and because it was close to the anniversary of my trip around the sun, she baked this cake. It was soooooo good the waiter (a pastry chef on the side) snuck a piece to try and grabbed a copy of the recipe. Sorry for the covered up photo of Cathy...it was hard to focus when I was looking at this cake.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
18 ounces of bittersweet chocolate
1 cup unsalted butter
Pinch of salt
6 large eggs

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease one 10 inch round cake pan

In a small pan, heat water, sugar and salt. Stir until completely dissolved and set aside.

Put the chocolate into a bowl and microwave until melted.

Cut the butter into pieces and beat the butter into the chocolate, 1 piece at a time. Beat in the hot sugar water. Slowly beat in the eggs, one at a time. You will have a very thin batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared round pan. Put the round pan into a larger cake pan, and fill the larger pan with boiling water halfway up the sides of the round pan.

Bake the cake in the water bath at 300 degrees for 45 minutes. The center of the cake will still look a little wet when it's done. Chill cake over night in the pan.

To unmold, dip the bottom of the cake pan in hot water for 10 seconds and invert onto a serving plate-or bake in a spring form pan.

Sprinkle the top of the cake with raw sugar.


Local Ingredients used:

Malie Kai North Shore chocolate
Naked Cow Butter
Hawaiian salt
Local eggs
Hawaiian cane sugar
Hawaii's Gold Macadamia Nut Oil